


Queen to E1

by Hawkflight



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ballroom Dancing, Board Games, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Implied/Referenced Cheating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-10-23 02:47:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10710588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkflight/pseuds/Hawkflight
Summary: Have a little faith. You'll know what you need when you need to know it.





	1. Ground Zero I

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking of doing something like this for awhile now, and with Diamond Eclipse currently on hold (laptop with the latest chapter on it died, for those that don't know) I figured why not? This chapter is going to start out a little slow since it's borrowing heavily from the show, but bear with me.
> 
> I'm not entirely sure what the 'regular' length of these chapters will be right now, or any clue how many chapters it will have. But this multi-chap for my funny rare pair will not be sticking to canon. So the good news is Volume 5 doesn't matter for the end game (see what i did there? no? ...i'll just go sit in my corner).

" _Allright. Hmm, alright_."

For a whisper it was oddly loud, and noticeable in an otherwise silent library.

"Yang Xiao Long, prepare your kingdom for battle!" Ruby shouted, shattering the 'peace' that had been present in the air before.

"Bring it on!" her sister exclaimed with just as much enthusiasm. And the silence was slain, in the most dorky manner possible.

"I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" Yang gasped dramatically, clutching at her... bosom, of all things. "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursi and attack your walls directly!" The dork began to make airship noises.

A just as dramatic gasp as the first one echoed from her sister. "You fiend!"

"And since Atlas is part of Mantle my repair time only lasts one turn."

Then there was the 'evil' laughter, _again_. "Pretty sneaky, sis. But you just activated my trap card!"

"Whaaaat!?"

"Giant Nevermore!" Yang's fist met the table, scattering the playing pieces. Didn't they know they would have to fix that before continuing so they didn't get confused as to where the pieces were beforehand? Fucking amateurs. "If I roll a seven or higher fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two."

"But, if you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!"

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take."

It was pretty easy to determine which side of the line the dice favored with the red head's wail drifting through the stacks of books. "Noooooooo! My fearless soldiers!"

"Eh, most of them were probably androids."

"Goodbye my friends... You will be avenged."

"Not until I draw my rewards, which are doubled this round, thanks to the Mistral trade route!"

"Bah!"

"Oh, and what's this? The Smugglers of Wind Path!?"

"Bah! Bah, I say!"

"Looks like I'm taking two cards from your hand!"

"Have you no heart!? Nooo," Ruby whined, defeated.

"Well Weiss, it's your turn!"

"I have... absolutely no idea what's going on." Well that made two of them. Granted, this was a lot more confusing having to listen to because they decided to play a card game in a _fucking library_. He may not be studying, but he _had_ been trying to concentrate on his task before the four of them came bumbling in here. Okay, mostly just blondie and hyper red wings, but still.

Yang slid over to look at Weiss' cards. "Look, it's easy! You're playing as Vacuo which means all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus!"

"That sounds dumb." Agreed.

"See, you've got Sandstorm, Dessert Scavenge-Oh! Oh! Resourceful Raider! See now you can take Ruby's discarded air fleet-"

"Nooo," the mentioned 'weeped rivers' onto the table.

"-and put it in your hand!"

"Okay?" It was clear Weiss was having a hard time wrapping her head around such a ridiculous game.

"And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance boost against natural hazards, you could use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom! Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war." Yang slid back to her starting position.

"And that means?"

"You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!"

"Ahahaha! Yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms-" His brow raised. That got dark quickly.

"Trap card."

"Huh?"

"Your armies have been destroyed."

"I hate this game of emotions we play!"

"Stay strong, Weiss. We'll make it through this together."

"Shut up! Don't touch me!"

"Alright Blake, you're up!"

"Huh? Oh, ummm... Sorry, what am I doing?"

"You're playing as Vale, trying to conquer the Kingdoms of Remnant."

"Right..."

"Hey! Can I play?" The other dork seems to have found his way to their table, and from the looks of it his teammate stole his comic to force him to study. And now he was trying to escape that duty for the time being by joining in RWBY's game.

"Sorry Jaune, we've already got four people."

"Besides, this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt you posses." He still wasn't sure why the ice queen was such a bitch to Jaune, but Mercury had only been at the academy for a week now. He would just figure out the reasoning later if it became necessary - or out of boredom, probably out of boredom.

"Uh... you attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago." Yang pointed out.

"Hmph!"

"Bring it on, ice queen! I'll have you know that I've been told I'm a natural born leader!"

"By who? Your mother!?"

"And Pyrrha!"

"Hello again!" Was that suppose to be a slogan or something? She said it quite often.

"Come on, let me play your hand for a turn."

"I'm not trusting you with the good citizens of Vacuo!"

"Why not!? You've trusted me with way more important stuff before! I mean you told us all that Blake is secretly a fau-" Pyrrha zipped over in a flash, covering Jaune's mouth

"Fun-loving person whom we all admire and respect!"

Jaune chuckled nervously. "Right... that." Right, a secret. The bow made it quite obvious what she was trying to hide, not to mention her status as a faunus. All other faunus in the school would know just by looking at her. Not to mention any human that had a brain. He seriously doubted it would be that shocking if the school - or anyone else for that matter - found out. What was the point of hiding such a thing anyway? She must have grown up with her ears out and in the open before, so why hide it now? Not that much could have changed between when she was a child and now. Humans and faunus were still at odds with each other, yet you didn't see the faunus usually trying to hide their species. It seemed cowardly to him.

"Ladies... Enjoy your battle." Jaune bowed.

"'Sup losers?" Mercury's gaze drifted back up from his scroll upon hearing someone else adding on to the endless noise. At this point it didn't seem like he was going to get anything done. He snapped the scroll shut, setting it on the table as he looked at the group through an empty space in the book shelf.

"Hey Sun."

"Ruby, Yang, Blake, Ice Queen." the monkey-tailed faunus known as Sun greeted each in turn.

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" Typically it's because the person being spoken to is a cold bitch.

"I never got a chance to formally introduce you to my old friend."

"Uh... aren't libraries for reading?" One would think.

"Thank you!" a member of team JNPR shouted from the table behind them.

"Pancakes!" What the hell is wrong with these kids? Or that team for that matter?

"Shut up. Don't be a nerd." Sun reprimanded his old friend.

"Gigigi. Intellectual. Okay. Thank you." Yeah, that first part sounded like something an intellectual would say. "I'm Neptune." Ah, a name for another idiot.

"So, Neptune, where are you from?"

"Haven." Neptune stepped closer to Weiss. "And I don't believe I've caught your name, snow angel." What sort of pick-up line was that?

"Um... I'm Weiss." She fell for it? Or she just had crappy taste in guys.

"Are you kidding me!?" Jaune whisper-yelled. Hm, had he tried to use something similar to hit on her before? Sheesh, you dodge one idiot to sub-comb to the next.

"Pleasure to meet you."

"I never took you as the board-game-playing type." Sun had evidently lost interest in his friend, since he was now looking to Blake. It was so obvious he liked her that it was almost sad when she shot him down.

"Right... well I think I'm done playing, actually. I'll see you guys later."

"Women."

Well, this had gotten extremely boring very fast, and he still needed to catalog the data he had acquired for Cinder. Even though he didn't particularly want to... he would have to go back to the dorm to finish up.

**~ / ~**

"That girl was the one giving Roman trouble?" Emerald asked in the safety of Cinder's dorm room. Their own rooms were across the hall.

"Yes," Cinder replied, looking at something on her scroll.

"I was watching her and her friends earlier. It's hard to believe she could do anything to slow his operation." Mercury was laying on his back, staring up at the ceiling. "I think he's incompetent." He glanced towards Cinder. "Why do we need his help again?"

"You know why." Cinder snapped the scroll shut, finally looking at the two of them.

"If he's the best criminal here in this rotten town what does Vale need police for?" He didn't expect an answer to his question, and he didn't get one.

Cinder slid one leg across the other. "What about her team?"

Emerald sighed. "Nothing special. It's like Merc says, 'they're a bunch of idiots.' There's Ruby their leader who got in two years early, but I'm pretty sure that's because she interrupted one of Roman's earlier robberies. She's nothing but a nuisance for repeatedly sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong, but not much of a threat to the real operation since she only knows about Roman. Her semblance is speed. Her weapon... you've seen it. I did confirm that she is one of Qrow's nieces like you asked. So going after her would make him come out of the woodwork, but... that would go against the plan.

"Then there's her partner, Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the Schnee Company, someone that has more of a reason to be going after Roman for stealing her father's shipments of dust. Yet it's her partner that's more concerned about it. Her semblance is the same as the rest of her family, summoning and glyphs. Though, no one in the school has mentioned seeing her summon anything to her aide in practice. It might be that she only uses it against Grimm. Other than that... shes uses a modified rapier as a weapon, is the one with the least stamina in the group. Unlike Yang she can't take a heavy hit, so out of all of them I would say she's the one to be the least concerned with-"

"The fact that she's an heiress to a global company isn't something to be concerned about?" Mercury ignored the scowl Emerald shot at him, keeping his gaze on Cinder. "Yeah, she can't put up a very long fight like blondie, but that doesn't mean you can just ignore her."

Emerald allowed a few seconds to pass, glancing from him to Cinder before going on, "As I was saying. Blake Belladonna is Yang's partner in the group. A cat faunus. Her semblance allows her to leave behind a copy of herself, but it can't move or actually do anything so she uses it as a decoy most of the time. I couldn't find anything on her past. She didn't attend a training academy before coming here, and considering how there wasn't much in the records I would guess she was raised outside the kingdoms.

"Yang on the other hand is Ruby's sister. Another niece of Qrow's, which makes her as just as big of a nuisance as her sister. She's hot-headed and enjoys fighting. She supports her sister as leader of the team even though she's younger than her. I didn't find out what her semblance was, but her usual fighting style is hand-to-hand." Emerald paused. "Is that enough? Did Roman need to know anything else in case they showed up again?"

"No." Cinder gave a dismissive wave of her hand and the two of them got up, heading for the door. Emerald reached it first, unlocking it and slipping out of the room to go across the hall. "Mercury. A word." He stopped in the door frame, glancing over his shoulder before grabbing onto the handle and pulling the door closed once more.

The lock slid back into place.


	2. Ground Zero II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may have noticed I deleted the original chapter here. I did this because it derailed the story from what it was suppose to be originally and ended up being the main reason I couldn't find any joy in writing further for this at the time. This rewritten chapter is going to set it back on its tracks so the story can continue as I intended. AKA a crazy ass roller-coaster.
> 
> So I've gone and upped the rating as well and will give one warning - and one warning only rather than any disclaimer at specific chapters for any higher rating content it may or may not contain - as this fic will contain some seriously fucked up shit (case in point). I do list tags on AO3 as chapters come out so you can glance at that and have a small idea of what a chapter may contain and determine if it will be too much for you.
> 
> Now, admittedly this is still a slow-paced chapter, but it offers a lot more to the plot than the last one did. So if you're still here with me I hope you enjoy it, because I seriously intend on extending this into a series that reaches its own conclusion.

Emerald is standing next to the punch bowl, a fake smile slapped onto her face when Ruby comes out of nowhere - for her - and ambushes her. He can't hear what she's saying to Emerald - or what's supposedly so funny that Emerald has to laugh, - but he can tell that inwardly Emerald is cringing and probably wishing she hadn't gone and gotten a plastic cup full of generic red punch. The only kind there is at this 'dance.'

It was a plain large ballroom, people dancing in pairs; not the sort of thing he had grown up around. It didn't have the chaotic sounds of music assaulting your ears, thrumming through your whole body as even the walls vibrated, lights flashing in the dark, only a small area lit up beside the bar where people could actually sit rather than dance in the space that seemed much too small for the crowd it held.

There was no denying this place was different from Mistral, everything stayed on the relatively same elevation for one thing when it came to this city. It was far less fun to navigate as well, not nearly as many dark alleys and wires twisting between buildings, the roofs flat rather than slated. It was boring, sure. But he hadn't been asking for extra work when he made that comment - partly to piss off Emerald - he had just wanted to point out that it was stupid to overlook your opponents. That was it. He hadn't asked for  _this_.

His gaze slid over Emerald as she attempted to end the conversation with Ruby so she could leave, but Ruby seemed to be happy speaking with her and wasn't shutting the fuck up anytime soon. He would laugh at her own situation if he wasn't stuck in one he didn't want to be in as well.

Weiss was standing in a corner now, rearranging yet another vase of flowers. He didn't think there was anything there for her to actually fix, but she seemed to be determined to act as if she was doing  _something_  rather than nothing. Mercury had simply been watching her for the past ten minutes since he entered the building, wondering why he was assigned to this task. The answer was obvious: because he mentioned it. Her status.

And it had piqued Cinder's interest. Out of nowhere; suddenly she cared. At the end of their talk she had smiled, all pearly white teeth glistening, just waiting to crush its newfound prey between its molars.

She had given Mercury an exceedingly simple task: get close to Weiss. She hadn't given a reason, leaving quickly after; she just told him that he needed to get close to her and stay close to her in 'phrenic proximity.' Whatever the hell that was suppose to mean. He knew he would get a more accurate idea of what she was planning later, but right now it was frustrating not knowing why he had to be doing this. Emerald would surely be a better pick, she already had to speak with those on team RWBY before. So why not her?

Mercury suppressed a sigh as Weiss bent down further, fingers grasping a stem and trying to twist it around another... trying to make it look more artistic? Maybe? He definitely didn't understand what  _she_ was trying to do.

Why were women so complicated?

This was actually the best position he could hope to find her in, though. Her friends were dancing with other students - except Ruby, sorry not sorry - while she was alone, playing with a bunch of plants. He didn't know when another opening was going to present itself, and he had already grown incredibly bored watching her and her team trying to find one before now. Her teammates were almost constantly glued to her hip, when Cinder gave him this task she clearly either hadn't thought of how difficult it would be to get close to only Weiss or had vastly underestimated his abilities.

He was an assassin, not a buddy machine. And this whole thing was ridiculous.

Mercury pushed away from the wall, making his way toward her as he noted her slouched form yet again. Usually Weiss went out of her way to stand straight, to have the perfect posture. It was probably ingrained into her since birth considering she came from Atlas - and was a Schnee on top of that - so it was an easy thing to notice.

Her entire body screamed that it didn't want to be there and yet nobody was taking notice. They were leaving her to squirm in the corners, staying out of the light: the happiness that enveloped everybody else and came off them in waves, multiplying as they crashed together in the crowd.

He stopped just a few feet away from her, continuing to watch as she took no notice of him being so close. She wasn't happy, that was clear. It was less clear how he was suppose to fix that; to get that 'phrenic proximity' but he was going to have to try, and he would need to make an impression in the process, not be some random person that just faded into the background afterward. This was going to be... difficult to say the least.

"Hey."

Weiss jerked up, snapping the spine of the flower she held in the process as she consciously straightened herself back up to turn and address his presence. "Hello."

Mercury glanced to the flower bud next to her feet. "You just decapitated a flower."

"What?" Weiss followed his gaze down to her heels to see what he was referring to. "Oh shoot!" She immediately dropped to her knees to pick it up and he had to reach out and grip her by the left elbow to stop her knees from actually touching the tile.

"You're going to get your dress dirty. I can get it. My suit's black so it won't make a difference if a little dirt gets on it." He let go of her elbow, allowing her to stand back up as he bent the rest of the way necessary to pick up the damaged flower, getting up himself to hand it over to her.

Weiss took it from his hands. "Um, thank you."

Well this seemed as good a time as any to introduce himself. "My name's Mercury."

"Weiss." She was silent for a second. "But you probably already knew that."

It was rather hard to imagine that anyone who approached her wouldn't know who she was, but it wasn't something he wanted to really draw attention to either. "How come you're not dancing? You helped decorate the room, didn't you? What are you doing over here?"

Her hands lowered somewhat, shoulders threatening to drag down after them. "That's... the person I asked didn't want to."

 _Oh._ Well that was just annoying, but maybe he could use this now that he knew why she was by herself over here. It actually wasn't a bad thing, not for him anyway. Now he just had to not look as if he were hitting on her or something. The last thing he wanted was to push her away, he could either be careful here or...

"Dance with me." Mercury reached forward to pluck the flower from her hands, setting it on the table next to the vase before wrapping his fingers around one of her suddenly empty hands. He gave a soft enough tug that she could easily slip her hand out if she wanted as he slowly began to walk backward, towards the dance floor.

Weiss took a slow step forward, brows nearly pinched together. "Why me?"

"I want to dance," the lie fell easily from his lips. He would much rather be reading a comic then participating in this farce of a celebration, but he wasn't getting much of a choice. "My team member got accosted and doesn't like dancing anyway. You're upset about not being able to dance with... whoever, I know. But if you still want to dance I can be your partner until you get bored."

Her lips twitched, as if she wanted to say something, clearly bothered by that last sentence as she took another hesitant step forward.

"Just say 'yes' or 'no.'"

She stopped in place and he waited for her. "Yes."

He allowed his lips to form a smile, walking her the rest of the way out onto the ballroom floor. They never said another word to each other, he did just as he had said he would. He danced with her, going out of his way not to follow the crowd with the way they stood close and swayed like a bunch of couples. Instead he focused on twirling Weiss in circles across the floor, keeping a solid foot between them if not more as they made twisting phantoms in the air. He waited for a smile to come over her features and kept it there up until someone stopped beside him and cleared their throat.

The sound was nervous and it was with a pinch of frustration that he stopped in his movements, Weiss skittering to a stop in front of him, breathing heavily as she almost face-planted into his chest. Her gaze drew up to him rather than the newcomer, a smile on her lips.

She had fun, and that's all he really needed to know.

"Excuse me," the boy spoke up and he could see Weiss' eyes widen slightly at the voice. One he recognized as well.

She quickly dropped his hands, turning to face her blue-haired crush. "Neptune."

"Could I speak to you?"

Weiss seemed to freeze for a second and it registered in his mind that this Neptune was probably the one she had been speaking about earlier. "Sure." She took a step forward-

"I'll see you again some other time," Mercury said, not about to let himself fade into the background. His mission didn't require him to get rid of someone like Neptune, but he hoped he wouldn't have to deal with an interruption ever again.

Weiss glanced over her shoulder at him. "Yeah. Some other time," the words slipped from her lips, but it didn't sound like much of a commitment to him. He would have to try harder to hold her attention.


	3. Den Verteidiger Entfernen I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a long chapter, but it also contains a couple canon scenes. Of course you'll also get to see how some of these start to drift from canon. So happy faces!

It felt like there was a little rock pinching into her back, settled exactly where it would be the biggest nuisance when it fell from the ceiling some years ago when the building was shaken to its very foundation. Not to mention when she laid her sleeping bag down on the dusty concrete floor. Weiss hadn't recalled seeing anything that would prod at her through the fabric when she chose this spot, but it was making it difficult to sleep for longer than an hour at most, perhaps ten minutes at minimum.

So she was awake again tonight, staring at the cracks in the wall across from her. A dark grey with stains set in from when the Grimm invaded this expansion of Vale. It was a shame that it didn't work out, that the only places that seemed to last long had to have natural barriers so the Grimm didn't overrun it. She didn't want to think about what had happened in this particular building when that happened, though. Why the blood stains were thin like a spider's web in some places while there were large blotches in others.

Would it have helped if there was a requirement that citizens unlocked their aura before venturing outside one of the four kingdoms? She wasn't sure if it would allow them to get away or just prolong their death.

What a depressing wall.

She knew team JNPR were scheduled to go out into one of the villages outside Vale to follow a sheriff, but she never got to see Neptune before she left. She didn't know what his team had picked for their own mission. Whatever it was it would be admittedly less dangerous, not to mention less... dusty.

Whether he was in town or out in a village he was probably more comfortable than she was right about now, sleeping on a bed instead of a sleeping bag, and not staring at a broken wall if he happened to be awake.

She had accepted his apology back at the dance, able to convince him to show her 'his moves' that he was so nervous about. The reasoning behind him turning her down ended up not being anything she thought it would be. Weiss had thought he wanted to go with anyone else besides her. That he had just been flirting with her for fun, so it was a blessing when he told her the actual reason. She would have laughed at it if not for how nervous he was at the time. And she had to admit... his dancing did need some work in terms of traditional ballroom dancing, but his own style seemed fine for clubbing. As long as he could get over the fact that people would likely be staring at him.

Neptune had only danced for a few minutes at the dance before mentioning wanting to get a cup of punch. Weiss had humored him, already drained from her earlier dancing it was easy to convince him that she didn't mind. He had come and talked to her eventually after all, it's not like she could expect him to be completely fine with dancing in public in his own way in one night.

Weiss shifted in her sleeping bag, resulting in that little pebble digging into her shoulder even more for a few seconds before she found a slightly more comfortable position. She found herself wondering what had happened to the boy she met at the dance. From the color of his suit he was also from Haven, like team SSSN. Did they know each other then? They must have at least heard of Mercury or his team, the schools weren't that big and it was common to face off against other students in practice to get a feel for other peoples' styles and hone your own skills. Not all teams stayed together after completing their education so you needed to know how to merge your tactics with a stranger's and not get in their way in the field.

That's how it was usually. With the festival being held at Beacon Academy she hadn't come across every visiting hunter-in-training. It was next to impossible with how many of them there was. Though, now that she thought about it she could swear she had seen Mercury at least once before at one of Glynda's classes. It was hard to recall exactly when since he would have been wearing something for combat rather than formal-wear.

He had also mentioned that he would see her again later, even though he was under no obligation to interact with her again after the dance, and truthfully she wasn't sure why he would want to see her again. At the time she had been moping about Neptune and he had just come out of nowhere. Not to mention the way he had worded that request to dance with her, but she supposed it could just be that he thought she was good at dancing and thought they could do it again sometime.

She was just guessing though, without knowing him much she couldn't really begin to wonder why he would look forward to seeing her again. The girl that accidentally beheaded a flower when he startled her.

He was strange, that she was sure of.

"Blake, are you awake?" Weiss tilted her head slightly when she heard Yang suddenly speak up. Were neither of them able to sleep either?

"Yeah." Blake answered, confirming her suspicions.

"Why do you think he asked us about being a huntress? Like, what was he trying to say?" It was a different reason than her own restlessness, but she could understand why it bothered them so much. Weiss had simply been preoccupied with the little stone since she laid down to really worry about what Professor Oobleck had said.

"Maybe he was just curious."

"You think?"

"No."

Yang sighed; she could hear her teammate roll in her own sleeping bag."Weiss are you awake?"

"Of course I'm awake, you two are talking." How did Yang expect her to sleep with all of this noise and a puny rock digging into her back? "And I think he..." Weiss paused, turning over onto her back. "When I said I wanted to honor my family's name I meant it, but it's not what you think. I'm not stupid. I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee Dust Company. Since he took control our business had operated in a... moral gray area." It was the best way she could think to describe exactly what her father had done to the company - was still currently doing.

"That's putting it lightly."

Weiss sat up, looking to her faunus teammate. "Which is why I feel the need to make things right. If I had taken a job in Atlas it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our name and I refuse to let him be the end of it." Especially since he hadn't been born with it like her. She didn't say that, it wasn't important to those outside of the family and it was an easy enough fact to come across if one looked at the records, but most people didn't.

Her father didn't bear the weight of such a large name all his life, he had just looked for an easy way to get in to the business. Which happened to be marrying her mother and having her bear his children. She honestly didn't know what her mother had ever seen in her father, and at this point she didn't want to know because clearly her mother didn't see it anymore. Otherwise she wouldn't spent ninety percent of her time drinking in the garden surrounded by guards. Another thing Weiss didn't want to think too hard about.

It was hardly a secret that her and father rarely slept in the same bed. The servants knew better than to talk about it outside of the manor, though.

"All my life I fought for what I thought was right." Blake began speaking after Weiss had laid back down, and just like Yang she listened to what she had to say. It wasn't often that Blake told them about her past. "I had a partner named Adam, more of a mentor actually. He always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place. But of course his idea of a perfect future turned out to be... not perfect for everyone. I joined the Academy because I knew huntsmen and huntresses were regarded as the most noble warriors in the world. Always fighting for good. But I never really thought past that. When I leave the Academy... what will I? How can I undo so many years of hate?"

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Yang assured her. "You're not one to back down from a challenge, Blake."

"But I am!" The conviction in Blake's voice was shaken. "I do it all the time! When you learned I was a faunus I didn't know what to do so I ran. When I realized my oldest partner had become a monster I ran. Even my semblance... I was born with the ability to leave behind a shadow of myself. An empty copy that takes the hit while I run away."

"At least you two have something that drives you." Weiss glanced to Yang who had turned onto her stomach. "I've just kinda always gone with the flow, you know? And that's fine, I mean, that's who I am. But how long can I really do that for? I wanna be a huntress... not really because I want to be a hero. But because I want the adventure. I want a life where I don't know what tomorrow will bring. And that'll be a good thing. Being a huntress just happens to line up with that.

"I'm not like Ruby." Yang admitted after a second. "She's always wanted to be a huntress. It's like she said. Ever since she was a kid she dreamt about being the heroes in the books. Helping people and saving the day, and never asking for anything else in return. Even when she couldn't fight, she knew that's what she wanted to do. That's why she trained so hard to get where she is today."

"Well, she's still just a kid." Weiss pointed out.

"She's only two years younger," Blake said, sitting up as well. "We're all kids."

"Well... not anymore. I mean, look where we are!" Yang let out a small laugh of disbelief at the destination their paths had taken them. "In the middle of a war zone and armed to the teeth?"

"It's the life we chose." Blake agreed.

"It's a job. We all have this romanticized vision of being a huntress in our heads. But at the end of the day, it's a job to protect the people. And whatever we want will have to come second."

_**~ R ~** _

She took a step forward and cracks spread throughout the ground beneath her feet. "Huh!?" The street opened up beneath Ruby, Zwei sliding headfirst off one of the falling pieces of concrete into the pit of darkness that had appeared below them.

Ruby grabbed at the edge of a piece of concrete that she could feel shifting down, catching Zwei with her other hand. She tossed him up and over the edge, just about to pull herself up when the former flat ground crumbled completely. "Go!" she shouted just as she fell, seeing Zwei peek over the edge for a second before it got impossibly dark.

She quickly lost track of how far she was falling, how fast; Ruby simply knew that the area in which she had fallen was large because she didn't bump into anything on her way down. Just when she finally met the bottom of the hole she had fallen into.

"Uffg."

The air rushed out of her lungs from the impact, but she only felt a faint echo of a bruise since her aura had protected her. So she was able to sit up quickly and see that she hadn't met the bottom. She was ontop of a building in an underground city that looked like it had never been completed.

It was all metal frames from what she could see, and with barely any rust-

There was a a noise from behind her. Ruby whirled around, throwing a hand up to block the sudden bright light coming from a doorway in the stone wall. "Freeze!" Two White Fang lackeys stood there with their guns raised and pointed at her.

Ruby took a step back as the other one spoke, "Where did she come from?"

Another step back and- she gasped out loud upon feeling the floor disappear from beneath her heel, waving her arms to re-balance herself as the two faunus approached. "You're a long way from home, little girl."

Ruby glanced over her shoulder, looking at the drop that awaited her before turning back to face the guards. She reached with her hand for her weapon, letting out a gasp when she didn't feel it in it's usual spot. It must have gotten loose and landed somewhere else. And she didn't have time to look for it right now.

One of the faunus stepped forward and grabbed her arm.

Ruby tore it from their grip instantly. "Hey! Hands off!" she snapped, teeth gritting against each other as she felt a cold shiver run down her spine.  _Where did her weapon land?_ She needed it to fight these guys! Ruby threw a punch at the faunus, her blood nearly freezing when he didn't even react.

Or rather his fist reacted and she attempted to hit him again and  _make him_ feel it, knowing it wouldn't work. Her specialty was her weapon, but if that was taken away... if she didn't have access to it... She didn't have the raw strength her sister possessed to fight these guys off.

That was her last clear thought when the faunus punched her in the head, resulting in a dull throb that poured into every crevice of her mind. "The boss is gonna wanna see this one."

She could feel them each grab onto one of her arms, right beneath her shoulder as they dragged her through the door they had originally come from. But she was having a hard time focusing, her mind wasn't cooperating, her vision went in and out of focus repeatedly.

So one instant she was in a bright lit passage, the next a metal elevator, and then she was met with another high ceiling, loose gravel on the ground, surrounded by rock.

"Can you give me a hand?" A voice filtered through her ears. "I can't reach this." Ruby turned her head to see a faunus directing a Atlas manned machine that held a large crate. "Thank you, just put it over there."

"Hey, be careful!" She glanced to her left where she had heard the voice come from, seeing a metal contraption and a faunus berating another about moving the curious object. "What are you trying to do, blow us to he moon?"

"Sorry sir!"

A few more seconds of being dragged over the ground and her body finally came to a rest. "Hey boss! We found something you might wanna see!"

"Is it good or bad, Perry, because let me tell ya, I have had a day." Roman Torchwick. She recognized the voice instantly.

"Uh... it's a little girl?"

With her head no longer pounding Ruby turned to look over her shoulder where Roman's voice had come from. A train car, and he stepped out from it a second later, a cigar nestled in his mouth.

He let out an irritated noise, tossing the cigar away; as if her very presence negated its effects. "That would be bad." Roman stepped down onto the dirt, grabbing his cane from within the car as he walked towards her, motioning for the faunus to let her go. "Where did you find her?"

"In the caves," the one named Perry replied.

"Alone?" Roman inquired, staring at her with distaste as she slowly turned around to face him, not getting up quite yet.

"Yeah." Perry paused. "Do you think she isn't-" before he could finish that train of thought Roman struck her across the cheek with his cane, making much more than a dull throb as her aura tried to lessen the blow.

It sent her reeling back onto the ground, gasping from the force applied as her mind spun once more. This time it didn't make her nearly black out, it just  _hurt_. Somehow the placement of blows made all the difference.

"Where's the rest of your pesky team?"

When Ruby remained quiet, glaring up at him as the pain started to fade he hit her again. Her shoulder flared up the instant his cane hit it and she stumbled to her left, hands grasping at dirt as she tried to push herself back up.

"Well, Red?"

She saw his cane heading toward her this time, expected it and threw her arms up to take the blow that made her fall back down again and skid across the ground. Ruby still refused to speak a word to him.

But Roman just laughed as he walked toward her, stopping short this time to just look down at her. As if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Wow, you are much more manageable without that over-sized gardening tool of yours."

Ruby scowled, lowering her arms to rush at him, going for a punch but he swatted her away as if she were a fly, tripping her over his cane in the process.

She could hear him chuckling behind her. "Oh, man. Ya know, I think I needed this today. Good job finding the little pest, Perry." More laughter as she turned around to face him once more, glaring up at him. "But seriously..." He knelt down, pushing the tip of his cane against her chin, making her look at him as he asked, "How'd ya find this place, Red?"

Her teeth gritted against each other as she glanced around, noting just how large the place was. If she could get away she could easily hide in here and possibly find a way back to her team. Ruby activated her semblance, making a quick dash around Roman, but her aura faltered. Between the sudden use of a short burst of aura and the blows she had taken it wasn't holding as long as she would have liked. Her usual speed was slower, but still impressive if Roman's shout was anything to go by.

"Huh? Woah!"

She heard a peculiar sound in the air seconds later, turning her head a split second before the hook on the cane caught her on her cape, throwing her backwards and  _once again_ knocking the air out of her.

"I see you've got some tricks up your sleeve," Roman began speaking as she was dragged across the ground. "Let me make this clear. We're not through here yet." She came to a stop, peeking up with one eye to see the hook reattach to the rest of the cane with an almost whip-like sound. She didn't recall that being a function before.

An explosion sounded further in the complex.

"Oh, what the-" Roman sighed, turning around to face the small group of faunus that had been watching him beat her as if it were some fascinating soap opera. "Perry, if you and the boys could take care of that? Kind of in the middle of something." He glanced down at her as he said those words, his gaze promising more than just some brief glimpses of pain.

Perry nodded, smiling as he began to walk off- before another explosion shook the foundation of the cave.

Roman whirled around to face the direction the explosion had come from. "What is going on here!?"

Ruby glanced back to see a group of White Fang running from something, shooting at it with their guns. She could barely hear them shouting from this distance, and then she saw them. Her team coming around the corner, and they had her weapon! She sprang up, landing briefly on Roman to pull his hat down over his eyes before she took of running again; this time with a goal in mind: get to her team.

"Somebody kill her!" she heard Roman shout from behind her, and then the following gun shots.

It was a breeze to dodge them with her semblance now that it was no longer having any hiccups. She was just so glad to see her team, relief flooding through her that she had to skid to a halt when she noticed a group of faunus between them and her, guns raised.

The familiar sound of Ember Cilica going off filled the air just before the group was sent flying from the blast fired from her sister's weapon. "Ruby!" Yang shouted, arms open.

And Ruby flung herself into them.

"Are you okay?" Weiss asked.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" She had to take a moment to push herself out of Yang's embrace, not wanting to let her thoughts linger on what may have happened if they hadn't found her. "But listen! Torchwick's got all sorts of weapons and robots down there."

"What?" Blake pulled her weapon free from its sheath upon hearing this.

"Androids, mechs; they're all loaded up on the train cars."

"Ah, that's ridiculous! These tunnels are sealed. The tracks lead to a dead end." Professor Oobleck said.

A screech filled the air and Weiss visibly flinched from the auditory system. "Get to your places, we are leaving now!" Torchwick's voice filled the cavern, and then the sound of the train taking off followed.

"Well, it sounds like they're going somewhere!" Yang yelled over the noise.

"We need backup. Let me call Jaune." The moment Ruby started dialing she realized it wasn't going to work. Much like when she had attempted to call her team earlier, her scroll was out of range. Not to mention they were down in a cave, reception was not going to be something easily attainable down here. "I can't get through!" She shoved her scroll back into her pocket, glancing over her shoulder at the train that was beginning to pick up speed.

"So, what do we do?"

"I believe we only have one option."

"We're stopping that train."

_**~ W ~** _

Weiss dropped down into the train car alongside Yang and Blake. This particular one was empty of any bomb situated in the middle, or right beneath the opening hatch in the roof. There was no White Fang in sight either, but that probably wouldn't stay true for very long. Professor Oobleck had told them to stop the bombs, but if the car behind them was really the last one they would have to deal with the faunus instead.

"I guess this is what we trained for." Yang said as Weiss reached for a small clip of Dust in her pocket.

"Here." She handed it over to Blake, since it was designed to be used with her weapon. "This should help you."

Once Blake slid the clip into her weapon the three started running forward, only to stop when a young woman dropped from the ceiling supposedly out of nowhere. It was Neo. Weiss recognized her from when they had fought Roman in the Atlas mech beneath Vale's expansive highway.

Neo stood up with a smirk on her face that seemed to be permanent. Did she really think she could take all three of them on at once?

"You two go on ahead. This one's mine."

Weiss glanced over at Yang for a second, but then lowered her weapon along with Blake and sprinted forward. Yang was perfectly capable of fighting by herself, and they still had their mission to accomplish: stop this train.

As they neared Neo Yang fired a shot from her weapon, causing the woman to deflect the flow and flip backwards, but also not have time to react as Weiss and Blake passed by her. For a second Weiss thought she had seen something fall out of the woman's sleeves, due to the flash of light, but then she simply shook her head and pressed forward into the next car.

She could hear the doors close behind her and Blake after they entered, a motion sensor on either side of the door. Just like before they had someone waiting for them, just not as subtly.

A White Fang Lieutenant by the looks of it, dragging a chainsaw behind him.

Weiss glanced to Blake, meeting her teammate's gaze she said, "You go on ahead."

"Got it!" Blake shouted back, continuing to run full speed at the enemy.

Laughter filled the cart as the Lieutenant lifted his weapon up, just waiting for them to make the first move. Well, if that's the way he wanted it...

Weiss sprinted forward, rapier raised to skewer the faunus, but he stepped aside at the last second, completely ignoring her and swinging his chainsaw at Blake. It only hit her teammate with the flat end, but it still sent Blake sailing backwards, a grunt of pain quickly following. Weiss spun on her heel to turn and face the man, going to thrust her sword as he turned to meet her. But it wasn't the chainsaw that met her, it was his hand: it quickly covered her nose and mouth, fingers digging into the edge of her jawline as he picked her up and then threw her back.

She could see Blake getting to her feet as she sailed backward, hearing the door behind her open when it sensed her incoming body, and then she saw it close as she landed in the next car, head throbbing from the impact with the metal, not to mention the rough treatment she had just gotten from the Lieutenant.

"How nice of you to drop in, Ice Queen."

Weiss' eyes widened at hearing Roman's voice and quickly pushed herself back up, twisting around to face him and raise her weapon. It might not have been the original plan, but he needed to be stopped.

"Does no one teach you kids manners anymore? You're suppose to say  _something_  when someone greets you."

"Stop calling me Ice Queen," Weiss snapped. She may put up with it from her teammates and Jaune, but they were her friends. She didn't need to put up with it when it came to the enemy. And it was plain weird having someone call her that and it not being used as a light jab or tease, but rather in place of her actual name.

"Okay, Ice Queen." Roman repeated, a smirk on his lips. "Slaver of thousands of innocent faunus, murderer of thousands more."

Weiss scowled, her grip tightening on her weapon. "I don't murder innocent people!"

"But you don't deny forcing them into slavery? Using them to mine your dust and then letting them die in an explosion opening another cavern? That's cold, Ice Queen. You should take some responsibility for what you created."

The question:  _what the hell are you talking about?_ lingered on the edge of her tongue for a second. And then she realized she was still standing in the same spot she had landed, listening to him spout this bullshit.

Was he stalling? Crap, she needed to get past him to the controls and stop this train from reaching its destination.

Weiss raised her weapon, eyes narrowing and Roman simply sighed, realizing his ploy wasn't working. A glyph formed beneath her feet and she was across the train car in an instant, rapier clashing briefly against Roman's cane, sparks flying as she weaved the blade back and forth, trying to reach through and incapacitate him so she could get past him.

Roman laughed as he met her blow for blow. "You really need to work on your swordplay, Ice Queen."

A spark of anger ran through her. "Shut up!" She thrust the sword forward, scowling when his cane blocked it again, and then she activated her semblance once more. More glyphs formed around her and Roman.

Weiss flipped herself back to gain some momentary distance, landing on the glyph she had created behind her, sword handle a little more lightweight from all the dust she had used in that moment. She steadied herself for a second then sprung back into action, this time she kept her speed consistent, striking at Roman from multiple angles as quickly as she could, using her glyphs as platforms to jump from as she made a little whirlwind around him with her blade.

When she stepped onto the last glyph she flicked her wrist up, hitting him at just the right angle to send him crashing onto the floor as he had already been stumbling to keep up with her.

"Tch."

Roman began to push himself up soon after he met the floor, his gaze slowly moving up to look at her. There was a smirk present on his face, as if he hadn't just had his ass handed to him.

What the hell was he-

A flare of light came up from her right side, blinding her for a second as she was flung through the air, her back hitting the sharp metal edge of a crate. Weiss cried out as her aura strained itself to protect her from the explosion that was currently causing her head to ring.

When her gaze came back into focus Roman was standing, leaning on his cane as he looked at her, clearly pleased with himself. But she didn't recall him getting the chance to plant anything on her, especially not something that exploded from... however it got activated.

Wait.

That thing she had seen fall from Neo's sleeve, it had landed in her pocket when she ran past, but it was so tiny she hadn't noticed it until just now. Whatever it was, it clearly had dust incorporated in it to make that explosion, and it was powerful for being so small.

"You know, you wouldn't be in this position if you didn't treat the faunus like shit. Just think of how many faunus that worked for your company turned around and joined the White Fang when they first realized they were being scammed. You directly helped with increasing their forces, and all the 'innocent' lives they've taken over the years." Roman smiled at her. "You're a murderer."

What she was was done listening to this crap.

Weiss pushed herself up, placing a hand on the crate behind her to steady herself when she stumbled, her right leg having some trouble with obeying her quiet command to get back up: to stand and fight.

Roman took a step back as she met his gaze, raising his cane towards her as she raised her own weapon. "I told you to shut up!" Weiss yelled, rushing forward at him. The muzzle of his cane raised from just pointing at her chest to at her head as she closed in. For a second her heart stopped, eyes widening as she realized it was barely a foot away from her.

Then the shot rang out through the train car and her head was ringing, her body felt like one big jigsaw. One piece hurting for a second only for the pain to transfer to another part of her body. Her aura was struggling to keep itself intact after that shot. She couldn't even see because of the flare that had filled her vision a moment ago, and it wasn't fading back in.

" _Weiss!_ "

Blake? It sounded like Blake, but the sound of her own name was fuzzy, far away, like it was echoing in a tunnel. Or was it just her imagination? Hoping that one of her companions was coming to her aide?

The sound of the train, the vibrations coming from the floor went still.


	4. Den Verteidiger Entfernen II

There was a steady metal click from his boots as he walked down the hall, occasionally glancing at the bulletin boards scattered on the walls, checking to see if a classroom door was locked - most of them were - he wished more were open so he could rifle through the contents inside to see if there was anything helpful inside. But he didn't get very many opportunities. It was just club rooms that were open at this hour for the students in case they needed to use them, along with the library, but that was a given.

And he hadn't come out here to run into any studious students so he had avoided the library, instead glaring at the walls around him. This mission of his was turning out to be far more difficult than he had originally thought it would be.

Not only did he have to get close to Weiss, he had to do it completely from the shadows. He wasn't suppose to be seen with her by _anyone_ from what he had gathered when Cinder spoke to him again about his task, shortly after Roman was captured as planned in her grander scheme.

She had surmised that at the dance it didn't matter, no one would remember some random guy that had danced with Weiss, and her teammates had been too preoccupied to have noticed him. He did point out that Neptune - Weiss' crush - had seen him, and after an extended minute Cinder said it was fine, she just told him not to let it happen again. Apparently she didn't think it would cause any issues with her plans for Weiss, but she had stressed greatly that he couldn't be seen hanging around Weiss by her teammates; it would be troublesome, she wanted to keep the 'subject' in a controlled environment. He honestly wasn't sure if she was referring to him or Weiss as the subject, and Cinder hadn't elaborated.

It had just been made clear how troublesome this was becoming. If he had known his little comment would spark this idea in Cinder's twisted mind he never would have said it.

He had originally thought it would be difficult to get close to Weiss because she was usually with her teammates, but with his new orders now he couldn't even approach her at those times. How was he suppose to do this when he couldn't place even a toe into the light? And beyond that, even if he managed his task... what was going to stop Weiss from telling her friends about him?

It was a legitimate concern, as much as Cinder said it wouldn't be a problem he couldn't help but think she was simply too confident for her own good. According to Cinder if anyone knew he was even hanging out with Weiss it would completely ruin her plan, or at the very least severely hinder it.

It was completely insane how she expected him to operate under such rules. If they didn't have a deadline already with the future fall of beacon he wouldn't be as worried, but his time wasn't unlimited. He had a very short time span to get close to Weiss, to grab her attention enough to be considered a confidant.

How the _fuck_ was he suppose to do this?

Mercury came to a halt in the hallway, staring down at the floor. He wanted to unleash his frustration on something, whether it be the school building or a student dwelling within. But that would definitely hinder the plan.

And he couldn't let that happen.

Cinder had been smiling the whole time she had told him his role - and not much else. She clearly thought this would be advantageous to her in the future. Her eyes glowed with desire, the same kind he had seen when she had just started to plan the fall of beacon. It's part of what had drawn her to him: that merciless destructive nature. That unbending will that had allowed her to take control of the White Fang in Vale, to obtain the Fall Maiden's power. Cinder got this plan into her head and she wasn't going to abandon it until she got what she wanted; which from what he could tell was Weiss herself. The why was a mystery, of course.

If he could he would ask Roman about it, but he was in prison now like he was suppose to be, which made that impossible.

Not that Roman would tell him anything even if he did ask; Cinder had likely struck a gag order on him in case any of them thought to do that. And Roman took her orders very seriously, but then again anyone would if they saw that look in her eyes. You didn't get between Cinder and what she wanted. Not unless you wanted to die that is.

He still couldn't find it in him to be as confident as her when it came to this mission. It came out of the blue so suddenly, and yet she appeared to have everything in place with that little smirk of hers. She was so sure it would work, she practically acted like she had already obtained what she wanted after coming back from talking with Roman, who appeared to have fucked up majorly with the early departure of the train.

Even if Ruby had interfered once again, you would think he had taken into account that it might happen. That man really was a lowly criminal that just happened to strike gold. If it wasn't for the fact that Cinder found him more amusing than annoying Mercury had no doubt she would have burned him to a crisp by now with all the ships he had sunk.

A soft note drifted down the hallway, somewhere further in, possibly twisting down another hallway with how faint it was. If he hadn't been so wrapped up in his thoughts he might have heard it earlier. As it was... he had to wonder who the hell would be playing this late at night.

It was in the school rather than a dorm room, so he guessed they didn't have to worry about waking anyone up. But still... he wondered what their reasoning could be. It was almost midnight, even those studying should be on their way back to their dorm if they hadn't gone back yet.

Mercury slowly placed one foot in front of the other, again and again. Perhaps he could take his mind of his own worries for a moment to sate his curiosity instead.

It seemed like a solid plan to him anyway. He could think of ways to approach Weiss from the shadows afterwards.

Still, all of this really was just a gigantic pain in the ass.

He continued down the hall, making the turn he had predicted before coming to the room with a panel that read _Music Room_ next to it. The door was open a crack, explaining why he had heard the noise from so far away as faded as it was. There was no window so he had no choice but to open it. He pushed it forward softly, hoping it didn't creak and alert the person to his presence.

There was a grand piano set in the middle of the room, an assortment of instruments pushed up along the wall, but his eyes were drawn to the middle of the room. The silhouette in front of the window, fingers dancing over the keys. That unmistakable pony tail that was off-center. Her hair glowed in the moonlight as she played, it seemed to make a halo around her in the otherwise dark room.

The song floating through the air was full of soft cords, a haunting melody full of emotion, but it didn't express which one, not exactly. Instead it created little ripples, hinting at what lay beneath the otherwise still surface. It was gradually rising higher as he watched, Weiss' fingers floating across the keyboard, her eyes closed as if she was trying to concentrate on only the music rather than what was around her - an empty room. The climbing of the melody stopped, staying at the same wave length for a time.

And then there was a pause, a moment of absolute silence before her fingers dropped down onto the keys like knives, and suddenly the sound was much higher, an almost rebellious tone overtaking the softer melody from before. Weiss' lips started moving and it took him a moment to focus on them, the shapes they were making to determine what she was phantom-singing to herself.

_-me see. The world the way you told me to. But I was young and didn't have a way to know the truth. Born to live your legacy, existing just to fill your needs. A casualty. Of this so-called family; that you have turned into a travesty-_

The floorboard he had stepped on creaked, loudly. And the music ended in a heartbeat, her eyes snapped open, head turning so their gazes met an instant later. She blinked.

"Sorry," it was the first word to slip out of his lips. "I didn't mean to interrupt. I couldn't sleep and decided to take a tour of the school when I heard you playing."

Weiss didn't say anything, just stared at him, and he couldn't blame her. She probably came here for peace and quiet, to work on some song, and he might have just messed up her process when he stepped into the room. But this was the type of opportunity he couldn't back away from. It was midnight, anyone else besides them _had_ to be asleep. He would be insane to walk back out that door.

"Would you mind if I watched?"

"Not at all." Weiss blinked once again when he started moving across the room, making a bee-line towards her. He slipped behind her for a moment, her head turning to the other side where he sat down on the bench next to her and gave her a simple expectant look.

For a moment the room was silent then Weiss turned to face the piano once more.

"Have you ever played?" she asked.

"No," he admitted, uncomprehending of the keys in front of her, that stretched out before him. That's why he had asked to watch her. But he did know how to kill her in under ten seconds with his bare hands and the objects around him. "I didn't have the time or luxury to learn to play an instrument when I was younger."

He didn't miss the glance Weiss gave him at those words, but she didn't make any further comment on his lack of musical expertise. "Do you want to learn?" She placed her hands back on the keys barely a second after asking him. "Place one hand on the keyboard to start, put your middle fingers on a set of three black keys."

After a second passed he did as instructed.

Weiss continued after checking his hand placement. "Curl your fingers a bit more. Good. When playing your thumb to your pinky is refereed to as number one to five, got it?"

Simple enough, elementary really. He nodded.

"Okay." Weiss paused, letting her other hand drop from the table right now and rearranging her fingers to mirror his on her side. "We'll do something simple. A nursery rhyme. I'll tell you which key to press from the number of each finger, okay? Let's start, then. Four." He stroked the key in the middle the same time she did. "Three. Two. Three. Four. Four. Four. Three. Three. Three. Four. Four. Four. ..."

Time passed as one small song from the next was played in two different frequencies, in symphony. Usually consisting of going through the keys once and then again without Weiss repeating the numbers of the fingers that should be played, and then they moved onto something new. To the point where Weiss had him using two hands instead of just one, though they sticked to the black keys, and he still didn't know what each one was individually refereed to when they were done, but he got the gist of it.

"You're a quick learner." Weiss noted after they played through the handful she had taught him again as a refresher.

She had let go of whatever she was working on before pretty easily, though... it made him wonder what her actual reason for coming out here was if her heart hadn't been in making a new song.

He let his hands fall away from the keyboard. "Why did you come out here tonight?"

Weiss placed her own hands in her lap, glancing down at them. "I needed to get out and think after the Grimm invasion."

"I see." That was understandable. For her, at least. Before now most people had thought the kingdoms untouchable by the Grimm, technically they still were but it must have been quite a shock for the citizens and anyone that grew up in one of the four kingdoms. It was only because of the White Fang - he wasn't counting Roman - that the Grimm had broken through the city's security briefly. And unbeknownst to them it was going to happen again, on a much larger scale.

The possibility that it could happen again after witnessing it had to be on everyone's minds, but it had to be even more troubling for a hunter. It was their duty to protect the people after all, and when Grimm could just burst into the city like that it made that job very difficult. Especially for those without much experience, those in training; every student residing here that wasn't part of the grander scheme. They were in for a rude awakening.

"Mercury..." Weiss bit down on her lip, worrying the skin between her teeth briefly. "Do you think I'm a murderer?"

 _What?_ Where did _that_ just come from?

"No," he said after a moment. "You're the picture of innocence."

Weiss looked up at him, frowning, brows drawn inward. "Not funny. I want a serious answer-"

Mercury leaned forward to brush a strand of hair out of her face, making Weiss' voice falter, but he didn't stop moving forward and she went silent when he pressed his lips against her hair. Soft as silk and whiter than bone.

"You got it." He pushed himself up from the bench, moving around her to head for the door as she stared where he had resided previously.

"W-wait."


	5. Den Verteidiger Entfernen III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has gone through so many re-plans and edits in just a few days as I've worked out more of the plot and how this whole thing works in my head (with a copious amount of notes included, seriously the notes for this chapter alone got pretty close to a thousand words because I have to keep track of so many little details; it's not even funny!) Had to re-plan when I realized some things wouldn't work out or make sense in the end. Just... this mutli-chapter is turning out to be so complex and I'm loving it!
> 
> And I hope you will too, so please enjoy and don't forget to leave a comment or something even if it's just about something small, because it might end up being really significant in the end. That and I would just love to hear more from you guys :)

Her heels click on the wood, a quick pitter-patter rather than a steady sound as he continued walking towards the door at a moderate pace. That word from before echoed on her lips again,

"Wait."

He could feel her fingers grasp onto his right arm and he came to a halt, pausing for a second before deciding to turn around and face her. Mercury wasn't sure what to expect after the stunt he had just pulled, but this wasn't exactly what he had in mind. If he could he would very much like to run from the room and suffer Cinder's wrath from any consequences that came from him doing so.

Weiss wasn't looking at him, not exactly; her face was turned away at an angle as her fingers digged into his arm for a second, hiding her exact emotion. But he could seek the pink tinge of her cheek and immediately wanted to bite his tongue off.

This was not what he intended, if he was reading this right that is... he didn't want to be seen as a suitor. All he wanted was to carry out Cinder's plans, to get close to her, but not _that_ close. Cinder said nothing about him needing to attach himself to her romantically and even if she had he would have refused. It simply wasn't the way he operated, this _whole thing_ wasn't how he usually did a job; but this was different. The assignment had come from Cinder herself, so he would do it, but he was _not_ going to act like some love sick puppy to manipulate Weiss. Not because it went against his moral code - he had certainly taken advantage of the opposite sex before, what could he say? It was a great outlet for stress, and he picked the type that were out for the same thing, so it's not like it ever became an issue. But this was not something he needed tossed on top of everything else he already had to deal with.

All the rules he had to follow for one simple task and then juggling Weiss' feelings as well? Hell no. That was something he did not want to touch.

Weiss let go of his arm, raising both hands to clap them against her cheeks, fingers patting the skin for a second as the color slowly drained from her face. It took a few more moments before she lowered her hands and looked at him properly. "How come you're out and about? I mean... I know you _said_ you couldn't sleep, but was that the only reason?"

Did she think he had come out here in the hope of seeing her? While that was neither wrong or right - and he really couldn't say otherwise - it was preposterous to assume she would be out at this hour, specifically in the music room. Though, it was a good thing he knew she came out here sometimes he couldn't say he would see her again in the exact locale without putting out false impressions.

The kind he didn't want. He only had to be so close... and it would be unnecessary to string her along. Perhaps he should have thought about how that particular action would look in her eyes more. Then again... it's not like she came right out and asked him if he was trying to court her or something equally ludicrous. This... could be a good thing. He just had to make his intentions clear; that was it.

"No. It wasn't the only reason. I wasn't very tired then and thought a walk would be nice. Your talent at playing was a bonus and I enjoyed learning something I didn't have the opportunity to growing up." A lie, he didn't really care about instruments, but he supposed he could use the information he had learned at some point. Just not for the purpose of playing music, maybe light conversation with a target or someone close to one, but that was it. He wasn't looking forward to the possibility of more sessions.

So he really should find a locale they could meet up at that didn't involve playing any particular instrument. "I came out here because..." he let it drag a bit, looking for any flicker of emotion in Weiss' eyes to determine which outcome she would prefer. "...I needed the air. After what happened yesterday that is. Me and my teammate captured Roman, the cause of the mess, and the whole time we walked him to the prison he was going on about how 'this was only a minor set back.'"

Weiss looked away at his words, like he expected she would considering she must have fought Roman herself or at the very least she was alone with him for a time, to fulfill whatever order Cinder had given him. He should really inquire what that was, so he could help with the plan more effectively. Right now he was guessing what would bother her the most, would make her lower her defenses consciously or unconsciously. It was the only way he was going to get close to her in such a short time.

Her fingers had curled into a fist, squeezing at air. So his meaning hadn't been lost on her.

After a few seconds passed her fingers slipped back open, and he was ready for the topic she had chosen to turn the conversation to. "Then why did you..."

"Weiss." Mercury stepped forward, turning to face her - so that she had to face him - as he raised a hand to grip her chin in his fingers, tilting her head up and away from tile. "You're not a murderer." Her eyes widened, clearly not expecting him to bring _that_ up again when she was trying to question him about his earlier action. But he was sure she would understand that _this_ was his answer to that very question. She just needed to be patient as he lined it all up. "Whatever it is you think you're responsible for, you're not-"

"But I am..." Her voice was close to a murmur, and her gaze was slipping down.

It was odd, to him anyway. An actual murderer didn't care about the people they killed, they didn't feel guilt for what happened. That's what being a murderer meant, though the true meaning seemed to be lost on Weiss like most of civilization. That a murderer was just someone that had killed another person; that was the textbook definition used in court.

Weiss wasn't a murderer though, but she carried the assumption that she was responsible for someone's death, clearly. No one had died that she personally knew in the battle yesterday did they? He couldn't recall anything like that in the news.

So why did she feel guilty? "Have you ever killed someone?"

"No." Weiss started to turn her head and he let his fingers fall from her chin so she could look away, to concentrate on whatever it was that was bothering her without him intervening for the time being. "But I didn't step in and stop it."

Mercury frowned. This wasn't very helpful at all. She wasn't like this before at the dance... _That's right._ She had been hung up on a guy at the time, something far less morbid. This change was recent, extremely if her responses were anything to go by, and she changed the topic pretty quickly when he mentioned Roman by name.

Roman did something, he said something to make Weiss focus on an aspect of her that wasn't there. That was obvious, and as he thought about it it became clear to him just why she was so worked up. Her family's company was the only thing she was connected to that tied in with murder. Not explicitly, the law couldn't prove it that is. And most of the time it probably wasn't planned out but rather the safety measures were taken off and those in charge let them die. Namely, her father.

That's what the rumors implied. Roman had taken them and twisted their meaning, though.

Weiss couldn't possibly be held responsible for those 'accidents.' She was too young to be a part of any of it when it started and... to think she should have stepped in when she probably didn't even know what was going on? It was messed up. Yet she was older now, so in a way it made sense... but that didn't make it right. This was wrong.

This... was what Cinder wanted. Part of it at least, her plan must require it to work. So he couldn't correct it, not in the role Cinder had intended for him. But he needed to get close to her... he would have to keep pushing her into the illusion that she was responsible in some way then.

If this was going to work he needed to not worry about how she would interpret his actions; as much as he hated it.

Mercury took a step forward, reaching out to grab her shoulders and turn her back to face him once more, but he didn't stop there and Weiss' eyes widened when he pulled her close, pressing her body against his, wrapping his arms loosely around her so that she could break free if she really wanted to. But he was betting on her not doing such a thing. He couldn't fulfill his role if she pushed him away.

Weiss hadn't moved an inch so far, it was almost like she was frozen in his grasp and he wondered for a moment if she would shatter to pieces if he tightened his hold.

"What was it that stopped you? Fear? That's normal. It's a base emotion, even the Grimm understand it enough to detect it." He paused, running his tongue over his lips. This wasn't his area of expertise. Cinder had to be overestimating him to deal with the situation she had pushed on him. "If it's in the past you shouldn't worry about it. You can't change what happened. What you should do is look to the future instead, understand?"

"I'm trying to," her voice was just above a whisper. "But it doesn't make a difference."

So that's where her thoughts had turned to. He wished he knew the reason she felt like nothing had changed from then and now, but he didn't know anything about her. Just rumors about the company, nothing personal: nothing about her family, the environment she grew up in. Just from looking at her and knowing she was the heiress of such a prestigious company one would assume she had a perfect life, got everything she wanted. He needed to look past such assumptions if he was going to accomplish his task...

_Fuck._

Mercury raised one of his hands from her back, reaching up to curl his fingers in her hair instead, to guide her head forward so that a few loose strands of hair tickled the bottom of his chin. _This was annoying_ , seconds after he thought that he could hear Weiss release a muffled choking sound, and then he felt the tears start to soak through his shirt.

Quick and quiet, that's how it played out.

Weiss clung to him - practically a stranger - crying out of her own frustration for being weak, for not doing anything then, much less now. There were probably other reasons as well, but he didn't want to dwell on them; he didn't want to think about the fact that there was a crying girl in his arms and he had no clue how to make it stop even if that's what he was told to. Thankfully, it wasn't. This was exactly the sort of role he was suppose to fulfill.

And after this he had to make it a regular thing. Well, not the crying, he could do without anymore of that in the future. But if he could be the one that Weiss turned to first? _That_ would be ideal.

Now how to do that... there had to be something he could use. Her song, maybe? She had been singing about her family, hadn't she? A travesty? Why would she use a word like that to describe it? No, wrong question. What needs did she fill by 'simply existing?'

He could only get the answers from one place: the source.

His gaze drew down to the crying girl and he ran his fingers lightly through her hair after a moment, watching as she pressed closer to him at the action, making less of an effort to muffle her sobs.

This wasn't the time though, there was no way she would trust him with such information so quickly. One of the problems he had with this plan from the start, but... he would have to try. Perhaps he could get Emerald to push her towards a location he could use to meet up again. He couldn't count on her being in the music room every night. That would be plain stupid.

Well, for now he should just deal with what was infront of him. Weiss.

**~ / ~**

He stood in an empty hallway, his mind's eye flickering back to the time on the clock when he had managed to disentangle himself from Weiss; when she had finally stopped crying, looked embarrassed about doing such a thing in front of him then fled the room soon after. She was confused by her own actions, that was clear to him. She didn't know why she had broken down in front of him like that and it was best for her to stew over that for now; to figure it out herself. He certainly couldn't help her find the answers.

And he didn't plan to chase her around the school either. That just seemed creepy.

After another second of staring at her door Mercury raised a hand to rasp his knuckles softly against the wood. Cinder opened it seconds later, looking more curious than annoyed at him for being up so early.

"Did something happen?" _Did someone see you with her?_ Was the real question.

"No." Mercury stepped into the room, closing the door behind him before answering her first question: "Yes." And he proceeded to tell her what had transpired while the rest of the school was sleeping.

Cinder listened quietly, her features quickly twisting into something feral. A predator that had just sunk its claws into its prey. "Good. Everything it set up for tomorrow. I need you to keep an eye on her companions for the day, make sure they don't suspect anything. It would be troublesome if they tried anything so tell me immediately if they start acting differently."

He wanted to ask _why_ they would act differently during or after tomorrow, but he kept quiet, just nodding his head in understanding.

"I trust you'll know what to do if they try to get in the way and you can't spare the time to tell me what's going on, though." She paused. "This is important. Just remember that you can't be seen with Weiss, and for the duration of tomorrow until the fall you should minimize any contact with her teammates as well. I'm not going to let this opportunity slip through my fingers, so don't fail me Mercury. Our time is too precious."


End file.
